Another touching post from VULTUS CHRISTI to share with our readers for this Saturday, the day we dedicate to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

A Holy PriestBorn at Annecy-le-Vieux in 1914, Monsieur le Chanoine Louis François CROSET was ordained to the priesthood in the Cathedral of Annecy on 7 June 1941. He exercised the sacred ministry in the diocese of Annecy from 1941 until 1952, and in the diocese of Bayonne from 1952-1990. He died on the Vigil of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, 7 December 1990.

A Father to Many Souls
Père Croset’s priestly life was marked by great suffering, by an extraordinary love for the Blessed Virgin Mary, and by a wonderful spiritual fruitfulness. I was privileged to be numbered among the many souls touched by his priesthood. At the end of his life Père Croset lived in a residence for elderly priests in Pau, not far from Lourdes.

At Lourdes
A number of years ago he drove me to Lourdes where, together in the February rain, we stood before the grotto and prayed this Act of Abandonment to the Blessed Virgin. Père Croset composed it in 1952, in a moment of intense moral suffering and darkness.

O Mary, my Queen and my Mother,receive into thy handsmy Act of Abandonmentto the will of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,so that, following the example of His beloved Sonand with the help of thy tenderness,I may let my life be directed by the Holy Spiritaccording to the mysterious designs of the Trinity.

I want to hide myself within thy Immaculate Heartto become there the hostthat thou wilt give to Jesus,so that He may consecrate me in His sacrificeto the glory of His Fatherand to the fruitfulness of His Spouse the Church.Amen.

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“While other martyrs suffered by sacrificing their own lives, the Blessed Virgin suffered by sacrificing her Son’s life—a life that she loved far more than her own. So she not only suffered in her soul all that her Son endured in his body. In addition, the sight of her Son’s torments brought more grief to her heart than if she had endured them all in her own person. No one can doubt that Mary suffered in her heart all the outrages that she saw inflicted on her beloved Jesus. Anyone can understand that the sufferings of children are also those of their mothers who witness them.” – St. Alphonsus Liguori